Development Info Project Eternity Kickstarter Update #59: Meet the Devs - Polina Hristova

[Sensuki]

Can't edit my post.

She did this image as well, there's a proper non-screencap version of it somewhere, looking for it.

 

[Scruffy]

would bang/10
edit after below picture

would bang if drunk/10

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Sensuki]

points for potato IMO.

 

[St. Toxic]

Tranny, right? Also, how common is the surname Hristova? Does the name imply some sort of kinship to Jesus Christ?

 

[boltrek]

This game gonna have independent Elves with Elf kings and their own states? From updates it looks like it's gonna be DAO/Witcher crap with Elves being integrated/oppressed into human empire.

 

[Lagole Gon]

would bang/10
edit after below picture

would bang if drunk/10

She's Czech, so she's always drunk. Go for it.
Oh wait...

 

[LeStryfe79]

Eh, I feel like shit pissing on her work. I'm all out of piss and shit for the moment.

 

[Sensuki]

She was the only concept artist on the P:E team for 4 months or so. Then they moved up to 2 in Feb and they added a bunch more in late may/early june. I remember Josh Sawyer saying on the SA forums that for the week it takes her to do a full detail piece like the Godlike concept she could be doing way more sketches/basic concepts for creatures and areas and whatnot and there are a lot of creatures and areas to draw.

Polina has been their workhorse concept artist for the most part, but when she has actually done a more detailed and colored piece they are pretty good (the godlike concept, the store drawing and the paintover bits).

The only thing I'm a bit concerned about for this game art-wise is the portrait quality. Although the Dwarf Ranger and the Godlike chick are good, they're still not ... right I don't think compared to the IWD1 / IWD2 portraits.

Hard to put my finger on it .... but I vastly prefer the style of the IWD portrait above

 

[Irenaeus]

The thing below looks like a decolored smurf.

 

[boltrek]

They should hire Larry Elmore to do some art, hand-painted and scanned in

 

[Witiko]

would bang/10
edit after below picture

would bang if drunk/10

She's Czech, so she's always drunk. Go for it.
Oh wait...

So she IS Czech. I've been trying to find out ever since I received the newsletter.

 

[Jasede]

She looks like she draws furry porn by the side; especially looking at that dragon. Could just be me.
Sensuki The IWD portraits were by this one amazing guy; doubt we'll ever see their quality again unless they get him. But he's still about.

 

[toro]

Am I the only one excited by a smart woman? Fucking faggots.

 

[Sensuki]

She looks like she draws furry porn by the side; especially looking at that dragon. Could just be me.
Sensuki The IWD portraits were by this one amazing guy; doubt we'll ever see their quality again unless they get him. But he's still about.

Jason Manley did IWD1 and Justin Sweet IWD2. Jason Manley actually did the BG:EE portraits too, but I didn't like those as much as the IWD ones.

 

[Lagole Gon]

She looks like she draws furry porn by the side; especially looking at that dragon. Could just be me.
Sensuki The IWD portraits were by this one amazing guy; doubt we'll ever see their quality again unless they get him. But he's still about.

Jason Manley did IWD1 and Justin Sweet IWD2. Jason Manley actually did the BG:EE portraits too, but I didn't like those as much as the IWD ones.

I'm pretty sure Vance Kovacs has also done some portraits for IWD2.

 

[LeStryfe79]

Screw it, this girl stinks. I don't care what anyone says. Her work simply doesn't hold up, and her lack of ability is going to tarnish the reputation of an entire team. Everyone else working on this project is good but her, and now we have to live with a shit stained setting for an otherwise inclined RPG. I refuse to believe I'm in the minority here. I don't care if she's a girl, I don't care if she can draw, and I don't care how good the rest of the game is. She doesn't belong in the role of design. I see better work on random Deviantart pages. I have to assume she knows somebody in the business, because I can't imagine why she got her job. This is a stinker, folks. If you don't believe me, compare her work to the classics or to other relevant games. I'm sorry, but this is bullshit. Somebody shit the bed here, plain and simple. Whoever's in charge of hiring fucked us and their friends for ulterior motives, and it will be very difficult for anyone to make me believe otherwise. I know I sound crazy here, but I see no reason to pull punches. It comes down to a lack of respect Obsidian has for the $4 million given to them by tasking someone subpar to an extremely important job. We all saw the poor concepts during the KS, so we shouldn't be surprised, but damned if this doesn't smart. Thanks assholes. Enjoy being forgotten in the annuls of decline when you had the chance to set everything right.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Kem0sabe]

Sweet´s art is amazing...

But i don't think his gothic vibe meshes well with what Obsidian is going for... heck, i'm still not sure that Obsidian has figured out a consistent style, they alternate between semi-realistic to outright cartoonish.

 

[Duraframe300]

I don't know man, the *I refuse to believe I'm in the majority here* line is a bit too pathetic for 3/5.

Then again, quite the effort.....

Ah, well 3/5 is ok.

 

[Visbhume]

Hard to put my finger on it .... but I vastly prefer the style of the IWD portrait above

I like the bottom portrait much more. It's more interesting and dynamic, and it suggests a certain... let's call it ethnographical verosimilitude.

 

[Duraframe300]

But i don't think his gothic vibe meshes well with what Obsidian is going for... heck, i'm still not sure that Obsidian has figured out a consistent style, they alternate between semi-realistic to outright cartoonish.

For some reason they seem to go with a more cartoonish vibe in the concept art, but not ingame. (Except exaggarted features on charachters like big swords on such, but that's because of the perspective and only really noticeable in close-ups)

Sensuki I'm pretty sure that dwarf was Kaz's work.

 

[Excidium]

Her art is p. bland but then again so is the rest of the game. It definitely lacks a style of its own, that to me is more important than being technically impressive.

 

[Sensuki]

Sensuki I'm pretty sure that dwarf was Kaz's work.

It was. I never said it was Polina's. I was talking about the portraits in general. Kaz did Sagani and the Orlan dude.

 

[Ninjerk]

http://www.artcenter.edu/accd/gallery.jsp?dept=Fine Art&idx=6

Look at the school she went to. I found a grand total of 3 paintings that show their traditional foundations chops. They are not bad, but the FAQ on the website says that a Bachelor's degree can be completed in two years. It is highly unlikely that she was required to do the thousands and thousands of still lifes, gesture drawings, figure studies, etc. that would bring her art up to the level of Jason Manley and Justin Sweet's from IWD. If you'll notice in the Portfolio section of her website, her architectural drawings are often accompanied by three-dimensional models. The programs are doing the perspective work for her (which is not to take away from her, this saves LOADS of time over plotting vanishing points and rectangular prisms around every damn thing you're drawing in a scene) and all this sort of work will never, ever teach essential skills related to structure/form and how light interacts with three-dimensional objects.

Both Manley and Sweet are essentially self-taught artists (Manley studied with a traditional painter at a community college/junior college in the Southwest US iirc) because the state of art education in the United States is abysmal, especially as it relates to representational/traditional forms. For those interested, traditional art education was eradicated in the United States due to the emergence of modern art and the conflict between it (sometimes CIA backed) and Social Realism (there's a school in Russia, St. Petersburg I think, that is pretty much the penultimate traditional art school), printing methods allowing color photography to appear en masse in publications, and, I suspect, the G.I. Bill (though I don't remember if I ever found anything substantiating this).

While she may have a decent grasp on form, I suspect she wasn't called on to use it much (and learning/retaining the ability to express objects with depth in two dimensions is a skill and requires tons of practice).